Nectar in a Sieve: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

The beggars at the temple recognize Rukmani and Nathan and tease them, asking if they’ve encountered trouble with their son. The couple stays there for several days, not knowing what to do. Every night, Rukmani fights for a single portion of food to share, as Nathan is too weak and listless to enter the fray. After the meal, they rest in the stone corridors wondering how to escape from the city. Nathan has no way to make a living except through farming, and Rukmani has been a housewife all her life.

One day, Rukmani decides to set up a stall as a scribe in the market. Nathan is skeptical, pointing out that no one will believe a woman can read. However, it’s their only hope, so the next day she sets out. For weeks she works in the market, but no matter how loudly she hawks her trade, she only makes enough money to buy food for the next morning.

Rukmani grows increasingly worried about Nathan, who frequently has bouts of fever and rheumatism. One day, as she’s returning to the temple, she encounters Puli, who says he’s coming for payment. Smiling at the child, she tells him she has no money but brings him to the temple to share their evening meal. Puli eats with difficulty, owing to his lack of fingers, but seems unselfconscious about his disability.

To Rukmani’s surprise, after finishing the meal, Puli stretches out next to her and falls asleep. Rukmani knows that Puli is better equipped to navigate the city than she is, but she still feels a maternal responsibility for him.

In the morning, Puli suggests that Rukmani and Nathan work at a stone quarry outside the city, where they can make more money. He leads them to the quarry, which is situated on a bare and craggy hill. Everywhere, people are chipping at the rocks; they work independently, and the quarry owners pay them based on how much they collect. Although he can’t help because of his maimed hands, Puli explains what to do, and Nathan and Rukmani work with difficulty all day.

At the end of the day, Puli helps Rukmani gather the stones in a sack and bring them to the overseer for payment. Their work earns them eight annas, four times what Rukmani usually makes in a day. Puli, who has been begging, rejoins them. He says sneakily that he’s only garnered one coin, but many rattle in his pockets.

Accompanied by Puli, Rukmani and Nathan work in the quarry every day. They always give their earnings to Puli, since he can safeguard them best. They calculate that they can make enough money to return in forty days. They try to coax Puli into joining them, telling him how peaceful and beautiful the countryside is, but Puli points out that they don’t even know how they will survive when they return. Anyway, he knows how to take care of himself in the city.

Nathan tries to explain the country is his home, and he can only be happy there, even if he has to starve. He asks Puli what he will do when they leave, and Puli says he’ll return to begging and stealing from the market. He says proudly that he’s never been caught in his petty crimes; on the other hand, in a small country village, he “would know neither where to hide nor where to seek.”

Rukmani has become attached to Puli, and is saddened by the thought of leaving him. She also worries about the progression of his leprosy, which seems inevitable. Eventually it will attack his feet or eyes, and his courageous spirit will be helpless against it. To her, Puli demonstrates the “limit to the achievements of human courage.”